Hello everyone!
New to this site and looking for information. I obtained Verda the red eared slider a little over 6 months ago. I'm not sure how old she was when she entered our home but she was only about an inch long. The cutest little thing automatically stole our hearts. My boyfriend and I didn't know anything about caring for turtles when we first received her but we have done extensive research ever since. She is currently in a 20 gallon tank ( we know the 10 gallons per inch rule but this tank was all we could afford at the time ). She has both a UVA and a UVB lamp which is on for 12 - 16 hours per day placed directly above her basking rocks so the temperature varies from 83-95 degrees. We leave her Red heat lamp on overnight so it is a comfortable 70-80 degrees for sleeping. She is an avid basker however in recent weeks I have noticed that she is spending more time than usual on the bottom of the tank. She has always begged for food but lately she swims significantly more against the sides of her tank. We do have a liner around the sides except for in the front but I wonder if we should cover all sides? She eats everyday because I think she is still a baby. Approximately 6-8 Reptomin pellets in the morning, then some bananas, apples or other fruits along with red leaf lettuce in the evening and then maybe a few more Reptomin pellets later on in the evening. I noticed about 3 months ago she seemed bloated so we limited her food intake a little bit but now I worry she's either not eating enough or she's eating too much. As I mentioned earlier when we first got her she was about an inch long. Now a little over 6 months later she is about 5 inches. Is this rapid growth acceptable? I've read so much information on red eared sliders however nearly every book, blog, and website is different. I want to be sure she is comfortable and that we are doing everything correctly!
Thanks so much!